26 April 2011

This is the dessert I made for my Easter dinner this year. I saw them on the blog The Family Kitchen, and had to make them. They are so springy looking!

Flower Cookies on a Stick

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, at room temperature

½ cup canola oil

½ cup sugar

½ cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

2¼ cups flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

food coloring

wood or paper lollipop sticks or long wooden coffee stirrers

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat the butter and oil with both sugars until light. Add the egg and beat for another minute. Add the flour, baking soda and vanilla and beat on low speed or stir by hand just until you have a smooth dough. Remove about a third of it and set aside; add several drops of food coloring to the remaining dough and knead it in until incorporated. Wrap or cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. (This will cause the dough to spread less.)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Roll the chilled dough into marble-sized balls. On a parchment-lined cookie sheet, arrange one plain dough ball, place a stick with its tip underneath it, then place 5 colored balls around it. (They will spread, so they can be close together without having to touch.) Bake for 15-20 minutes, until set.

Makes about 1½ dozen cookies.

I actually didn't change anything about this recipe. The only thing I did differently was to make more than one color. My mom helped me make these, and we did blue, pink, and yellow. I thought it would be fun to have a few different colors.

I couldn't find sticks at the store that were the right length, so I used wire cutters to cut some bamboo skewers that I keep on hand. I think between 6 and 7 inches is good; mine happened to be 6¾” long.

We made the first batch on a dark metal baking sheet and they burned. :( So after that we used an air-bake type baking sheet. I think they would bake nicely on stoneware too.